For the fifth of the Writers on the Rise interviews, here’s Shana Silver! Check out her blog here and her website here. Please comment if you enjoyed reading this interview, as well as if you have requests for future questions.
Hello, Shana! Can you tell us a little about yourself?
I’m 27 years old and live just outside NYC with my boyfriend of 5 1/2 years. Hopefully his title will soon be replaced with “fiance.” He is very awesome because he ignores me and lets me write instead of pay attention to him. In turn, I let him watch sports. It’s a great compromise.
When not writing, I’m a freelance computer animator. I’ve worked on a variety of things you’ve probably seen. I designed/animated the graphics for CBS Sports, the USA Network, truTV. I also did a lot of work on the cg animated The Barbie Diaries. Plus a ton of commercials. I invade your TV and you don’t even know it.
I know a lot of authors who have creative pursuits other than writing. Would you say your work in animation has influenced your writing, or vice versa?
There are parts of my animation job that help me with writing, but it’s probably not the kind you would think. Mainly, in the day job I’m always working with clients who require several rounds of revisions. Often times, I don’t agree with their suggestions, and yet, I have no choice. If I don’t make the changes, I’ll be fired. Still, there are ways to make it your own and feel proud of a direction you may not have taken the work otherwise. Sometimes we have to start from scratch on a project we worked hard on. Other times there may be multiple companies vying for the same job, and we have to pitch several ideas in hopes the client will choose one of ours and hire us. All this stuff really helps with my writing. I tend to look at revisions objectively, not subjectively because of this. And the pitches help me look at a single project in a variety of ways, coming up with different angles to tackle it, until I get the version that works.
Also, I’ve always been an artist and a writer my whole life. I’m not sure I can be happy with one and not the other. I find if I get into a freelance slump where I go a while without any gigs, my writing suffers as well. I miss the art stuff and that ends up seeping into my writing. I do think outletting my creativity in two different formats helps me not to get burnt out.
What are you currently writing?
I have two WIPs I’m working on right now. My agent wants me to keep the premises of them under wraps until they go on submission. I will say that my main project is contemporary YA and loosely based off a classic story that hasn’t been re-told yet. It’s humorous, has a fun romance, and I had a blast writing the first draft. My agent is very excited about it and eager to get a draft in her hands. I am working on making this happen. I have a complete but messy first draft awaiting revisions and polishing.
The other one is also contemporary YA, though it’s controversial, a little darker and more literary. It’s high-concept and will appeal to fans of books like Speak, Dreamland, Looking for Alaska, Story of a Girl, etc. This one I’m just playing around with while I let the other one sit so I can tackle revisions with fresh eyes and a concrete plan.
Do you work on multiple projects at the same time? I have several novels in progress right now, and I find it productive, though a little distracting, to switch between them. How does this work for you?
This is another thing I get from the day job. At work, I’m always switching between multiple projects. They’re each like another world with all new styles, designs, animation techniques, etc. Like different books and characters. I’ve trained myself to switch between them and only take a minute or two to reorient myself in the new project.
Because of this, I don’t find it difficult to switch between writing projects, and I often work on more than one at a time. If I get stuck on one, I just pick up another. I can also force my brain to think about a certain project, so sometimes I’ll be mulling over revisions for one book while I’m writing brand new scenes in another. I know this doesn’t work for everyone, and I’m not sure I could do it as easily if I didn’t have to in the day job. I do prefer to revise linearly on one book straight through from beginning to the end before I switch to the next, but it doesn’t always work out that way.
What else have you written?
My novel on submission is called The Art of Selling My Sister and it’s about a girl who ruins her older sister’s life by destroying her chances at a college dance scholarship, and then must fix things before their parents find out.
I also have another manuscript with my agent, waiting it’s turn. Rhythm & Clues is about a free-spirit girl with an unconventional home life, who convinces her sheltered best friend to rebel against his overprotective parents. But he takes her advice too far and runs away with a dangerous crowd. Feeling responsible, she sets out to find him.
Finally, I have a trunk novel as well. I queried this one in 2006, and though I had a high request rate, ultimately the manuscript couldn’t get me an agent. I kept getting the same rejection: too edgy for YA, too juvenile for adult. The real issue was the college setting, and there was no way to revise it in one direction or the other, so I shelved it. It was about a girl who concocts a string of lies to weasel her way into a popular sorority, and then to keep up the facade, she indulges too far in the world of partying and binge drinking. Her actions result in the sorority being shut down, and she’s left to pick up the pieces. Even the title was too edgy: Premature Evacuation.
My newest novel, Unseen, also takes place in college, and I have heard that college in young adult fiction can be a hard sell. What do you think?
I don’t think it’s impossible, but I do think it limits your options. I know when I queried my college book, a lot of agents were deterred by the college setting because it automatically made the book hard to sell. Still, I got requests, so they were obviously willing to at least take a chance and see. The edginess factor in mine hindered it too much. I did a lot of research at the time to find college-set novels that weren’t part of a series where the characters started out in high school. I found a lot more books shelved in the literary section (I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe, Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis) than those shelved in the YA section (Reality Chick by Lauren Barnholdt). My book straddled both genres, literary writing with a YA style plot. It didn’t really work.
I think the real issue with college books being a hard sell is the lack of target audience. I think high school aged teens can’t relate to college books because the concept and subject matter is too foreign for them. Or they’ve already branched out into adult books. Adults are already over it by the time they graduate, they want to read about people their own age. And college kids are too busy studying or partying to read. Obviously I’m stereotyping here and there are exceptions to every rule–I’m sure most writers were avid readers in college like me–but I think the majority of people do fall into this category.
That being said, I do think it’s possible to sell a college aged book. I think it helps if you have an established readership, which I think you’ll easily gain with your debut! I also would err on the side of tame rather than edgy. I do think the edgy factor combined with the college setting made mine too hard to sell, plus the muddled genre, but I wonder if I would have had an easier time if I kept it a bit more sugarcoated.
Where are you at on your path to publication?
I have an agent who I absolutely adore, and The Art of Selling My Sister is out on submission. So I’m just waiting right now, trying not to check my email every 2 seconds, and distracting myself with writing.
I know what you mean about obsessively checking email in the hope of good news, or any news. How do you balance selling your work with actually writing it? Does business ever get in the way of creativity?
At the moment, I don’t think it interferes with my writing. The selling part is currently out of my hands. I did my job, wrote the best book I could write, and now it’s in the capable hands of my agent. I guess the selling part really came when querying, but while I queried one book, I focused on another WIP so I had something to distract me. I think that’s the best thing you can do while trying to sell one book–work on something else. The only thing I really sacrificed was the time it took to write the query and send it out. But on the other hand, that was time well spent.
Sometimes I do get antsy waiting for news on my book on submission, but then I think about how enthusiastic my agent is about me and my future books and that really motivates me during times I feel frustrated by all the waiting.
And though my goal is obviously to sell the books I write, I also just enjoy writing them. I don’t want to lose sight of this. I think it’s so so important to always enjoy it. And I know I couldn’t ever give up writing even if I’m the only person who ever reads my stuff. I love it, and I think that’s the part that helps me focus while trying to dive into the business-y stuff.
What advice do you have for writers?
Oh, where to begin? I’ve posted a lot about my love for outlines on my blog, so I’ll talk about something different here.
The thing that helped me the most with my writing was learning to master pitches and query letters. I started understanding hooks and what’s high-concept and which ideas were worth working on and which I should ignore. There’s an art to condensing an entire manuscript into such a small format while still keeping the reader’s attention, and I think being able to do that leads to tighter manuscripts as well when you practice the conservation of words. When I first started writing queries, I sucked. But then I practiced loglines. I read the PM deals and kept a list of which hooked me and which didn’t. I started analyzing why. I took current books and movies and figured out their loglines. Eventually I expanded to pitches and full paragraphs. I wrote a lot of pitches for ideas that I never worked on. So everyone dreads writing queries, and now they are my favorite thing. Too bad I don’t have to do it anymore! But I still reap the benefits. My first drafts are usually too long, and so studying how to condense turned a weakness into a strength.
What is your understanding of “high-concept” fiction? It took me some time to figure out this term, and I still see debates about its definition.
My definition of high-concept is being able to pitch the work in a short, hooky sentence that makes the person you’re telling the idea to say, “Oooh! I want to read that!” They need to immediately understand the premise and be intrigued by it. It’s something that immediately gives you a sense of conflict, what the stakes are, and still feels fresh and unique. Also, I once read this somewhere but I can’t remember where so apologies for the lack of source credit, but one of the best definitions I ever saw is that high-concept plot descriptions avoid certain weak verbs. If you have to say “struggles” or “deals with” as your main verb, it’s probably not high concept. I think that makes a lot of sense. Because those kind of verbs don’t hint at what’s at stake, and I think high-concept needs to.
If you’re unsure of the definition, I think the best way to understand it is to start reading the deal postings on Publisher’s Marketplace and make notes when a posting hooks you and makes you wish that book was already on your TBR shelf. Then you can ask yourself, what about it hooked you? Another method is to take books you have already read that you did not write and try to figure out their logline. If it’s too difficult to pair down into a single, hooky sentence, that book might not be high-concept. Even the 500+ page Twilight book can be broken down into a few words (teen girl falls in love with a vampire who wants to kill her). That one is interesting, I just realized, because I bet if you tried to tell Edward’s story in a logline, you’d have to resort to a “struggles” type verb. (Vampire struggles to suppress his desire to kill the human he loves). However, both of those show you the conflict (forbidden love), what’s at stake (her life), and the unique aspect (Romeo and Juliet with vampires).
That being said, you can most likely describe any book into a single sentence. The key is that it’s a hooky sentence that immediately lets you know what the story is about.
What are your inspirations?
Though I didn’t know what to call it at the time, I think the voice from the narration of My So-Called Life is the thing that initially made me want to be a writer. Now, I wrote stories way before this, but Angela’s voice spoke to me because of it’s raw emotion. I didn’t want to just tell stories anymore, I wanted to affect the reader, grab hold of them, and keep holding even 14 years later. More recently, my influences are Margaret Atwood, Sarah Dessen, Laurie Halse Anderson, Maureen Johnson, and though my books are nothing like his, I love Chuck Palahniuk’s voice.
I’m also influenced by 90s alternative music because it brings me back to the nostalgia of my own high school experiences and gets me in the mindset to write YA.
What has been the best part of writing?
My favorite part of writing is probably revising. Knowing you have a complete story that has problems and being able to see how to change them. I love the revelation moment when it all clicks and suddenly everything makes sense. The plan is there, you just have to execute it. And then the feeling of accomplishment when those changes work. I know, I’m weird, I like revising and query writing. I actually don’t like first drafting. The blank page scares me. So I try to bang it out as fast as I can just so I can slip into the comfort of revising.
And what has been the worst part?
Oops, I put that above. I find first drafting more difficult than anything else. I often try to trick myself so I don’t even know I’m first drafting. I create meticulous outlines, really detailed, sometimes with dialogue and description. My last outline was 18k. So when it came time to write the first draft, I’d already done the hard part, I just had to flesh it out. I’m not a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants writer. So writing without a plan makes me too nervous.
Where do you hope do be in a year?
Well, I hope to have a book deal for sure. And if that happens, I’d like to have a brilliant marketing plan I’ve already started implementing. You know, the usual…
And here’s a teaser from Shana’s The Art of Selling My Sister:
Three months, twelve days, and fifteen hours had passed since I ruined my sister’s life. I’d spent all one hundred thousand minutes since trying to make it up to her. Well, okay, I wasted some of those minutes sleeping. And I never really thought about her while showering or using the toilet because that’s just weird.
Presents didn’t work. The one thing Lara wanted couldn’t be bought. Apologies lost their meaning when I chanted them over and over, and she learned to tune me out. I even got a summer job and gave her all my earnings. I knew it was my fault she couldn’t dance anymore with her hip injury, and I figured I could at least try to pay for her physical therapy. But that backfired when she returned the money, claiming she didn’t want to owe me any debt. That was the last time she actually spoke to me on her own volition. At home, she went out of her way to avoid me, spending less time at the house each day.
I was about to give up and embrace the title of disowned sister like Lara so readily wanted me to wear. But today when I began my first day of 12th grade, a marketing assignment offered me the opportunity to confess my shameful actions against Lara while simultaneously giving her the one thing she still craved: the chance to be a star. I hoped this was what I needed to win Lara’s forgiveness. Maybe even rekindle our friendship.
The bell for last period sounded, and students shuffled into the hallway, gabbing about their new teachers and regaling each other with stories about exciting summers. I rushed down the hallway to the school newspaper meeting. In order to help Lara, I’d have to give up my spot on the swim team and join the newspaper staff instead. The meeting times for both organizations conflicted. I figured it was only fair. An eye for an eye. Or rather, an inability to dance in exchange for a relinquished cherished pastime.
Getting on newspaper wouldn’t be easy. I’d have to turn on the charm. I pushed open the door to the media classroom where Lonnie Weitzman, newly crowned editor-in-chief, stood in front of a desk, humming to himself.
“Kasey?”
I obviously took him by surprise because his small eyes opened as wide as possible, and he dropped the papers he was holding. His curly locks bounced as he bent underneath a desk to retrieve them.
I crouched beside him. He met my eyes, smiled, and bumped his head on the underside of the desk. He rubbed his head while I picked up the remaining papers and handed them back to him.
Lonnie fanned through the pages, looking hard at the numbers in the corners, pulling out various sheets and slipping them in between others. He moved at blink-and-you’ll-miss-it speed.
“It makes for a more interesting read all out of order,” I said. “Consider it a favor.”
He snorted a laugh. I placed my palm on his shoulder, ready to use that laugh to my advantage, but he flinched and stared at his papers, the pages vibrating in his shaky hands.
My smile wavered. My plan was to win him over with humor, but maybe I’d used too much. I didn’t mean to give him the wrong idea.
For the fourth interview in the Writers on the Rise series, please welcome Julia Karr and check out her blog here!
Hello, Julia! Can you tell us a little about yourself?
Hi Karen, First, thanks so much for interviewing me! A little bit about me – I have two grown daughters who both live within five miles of me, which I like a lot. I currently live with four cats and three dogs in a little house that is over one hundred years old.
What are you currently writing?
My current work in progress is a young adult fairy tale, but it’s not about fairies.
A fairy tale without fairies? Intriguing. Can you tell us more?
Certainly! It is a fairy tale along the lines of “Once upon a time…” about Princess Sierra of Plains, who refuses to marry until she’s gone on a quest to The Mountain of the Seven Stars. Two young men want to marry her – the boorish Lord Rufus Waverly and Prince Ingloff of Ocean Walls. Another boy, Waverly’s penurious stepbrother, Artie, just wants to make sure she and her Lady-In-Waiting, Felicity. reach the mountain unharmed by highwaymen, ruffians and suspicious innkeepers. Of course – there are magical horses, gypsy potions and tokens that Sierra’s mysterious great-uncle Tonkin left for her to take on her journey.
What else have you written?
I have a young adult speculative fiction book that my agent, Kate Schafer Testerman is currently submitting. I also have a completed middle grade book about a house that was a stop on the Underground Railroad. And my last year’s NaNo novel that is a young adult contemporary story about witches.
What was your path to signing with a literary agent? What would you recommend to a writer looking for an agent?
I did a lot of research before send out to agents. I used Agent Query, QueryTracker and also did a lot of exploring on Verla Kay’s Children’s Writers and Illustrators website’s discussion board – paying attention to who was buying what and how responsive certain agents were. I also got help from people on Verla’s in tweaking my query letter. I can’t emphasize enough how important a spot-on query letter is! I did most of my querying via email (I’m definitely an instant-gratification junkie!) I first sent out around 10 query letters and whenever I’d get a rejection – I’d send out another couple of queries. All total – my stats on querying were something like: 35 queries – 12 form rejections – 7 personal rejections – 8 requests for partials – 8 no responses (ever!) and from those 8 partials I got 4 requests for fulls. All of those were agents I would’ve loved to have signed with. However, you only get one! And, after talking with her and doing some revisions – I signed with Kate!
My recommendation to writers looking for agents… research, research, research! Be sure that the agents you are querying want what you’re writing. It’s a waste of time (and paper & stamps if you send snail mail) to query agents who do not represent the kind of work you are writing.
Also, when you get the call, be prepared with some written-down questions that you want to ask your prospective agent. I say “written-down” because I guarantee that in the middle of your internal squee-ing about talking with a real-live agent you will forget that you actually have questions to ask someone who is essential becoming a partner with you on the road to publication. Also – your agent-to-be will in all likelihood ask if you want to contact a few of their clients for references – which, of course, you should! Have some questions prepared for those clients, too. (I’d be more than willing to share my list of questions with anyone who’d like them.)
Where are you at on your path to publication?
I signed with my agent, Kate, last February (almost a year ago) and she is working on finding a home for my first novel, XVI.
Is XVI the title of your first novel? What is it about, and what inspired you to write it?
Yes – XVI is my first novel. It’s speculative fiction – and the logline is “In the year 2150, turning sixteen is anything but sweet.” It’s a dystopian novel set in Chicago in the mid-2100’s, about a girl on the verge of her sixteenth birthday. When her mother is brutally murdered, Nina sets out to find the father she’d always been told was dead. Along the way, she has to keep from being selected as a FeLS (Federal Liaison Specialist – which is the only way for low-tier girls like Nina to better themselves – but, so many of them disappear…never to be heard from again.) She also has to keep her little sister, Dee, out of the clutches of Dee’s murderous father and keep from falling in love with a boy who is not at all what he seems to be.
XVI was my first NaNoWriMo novel – and it was inspired by an image that popped into my head one day of a punk rock girl, headphones on, walking down the streets of a big city (originally New York, but I know Chicago better, having lived there for five years) trying to ignore everything going on around her – blaring advertisements, homeless people, traffic, etc. From that beginning on Nov. 1st, 2006 – came the entire story.
What advice do you have for writers?
I would say first off, read, read, read. Writers learn so much about writing by reading. I mean, how many times have those of us who write read something and known “I can do that” – maybe even “I can do that better!”? We learn what works and what doesn’t work by reading what is already out there. Secondly, after all that reading – write, write, write! Practice makes perfect! Well… I don’t think as writers we would ever say, “Oh, I’ve written the perfect story!” Maybe we write the perfect phrase or paragraph, find the perfect word to express what we’re trying to say – but, as writers, we must always strive to do better. And, we do better by first doing!
Do you read differently now that you are a novelist yourself? For example, do you dissect a story and study the technique of a particular author, or do you listen purely to your reactions as a reader?
I do read differently, but not consciously so. For sure, I have a reaction when I read something either really good (most recently, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie – what a great voice that Junior has!) Or, something really bad (no, I will not name names here, but…) My main purpose in reading is to be entertained (or, with non-fiction, to learn something new) – but, I do find that since I’ve been writing I am much more aware of what works (or doesn’t) in what I’m reading. And, for the first time in my life – ever – I am willing to put a book down if it’s not good. In the past – I would read anything, but not any more.
What are your inspirations?
I get inspired by the oddest things – a sentence of dialogue will pop into my head, or I’ll wake up with a snippet of my last dream still roiling around in my brain. My latest NaNo novel was inspired by a local news story. Inspiration is all around – the key for me is to grab it and hang on like it’s a bucking bronco! I don’t like to let go until the first draft is done (although, in all honesty, I have a computer file full of partial first drafts! Lots of stories waiting to be written!)
What has been the best part of writing?
Oooo…there are a few “bests.” Like, finishing a first draft – woot! Hearing my critique partners say they like what I’ve written, but… and then helping me to see where I can make my story better. Yeah – that’s nice. Also, revising. I love to make things even better than I thought they could be.
And what has been the worst part?
All of the above! Ha! Really though – when I finish a first draft, after the elation comes the “oh, no… it’s over!” And, I put it away to let it sit and I miss those characters who have become my steadfast companions for however long it took to write the first draft. And – when my crit partners let me know something isn’t working – sometimes it’s something I loved (the ‘kill your darlings’ part of writing.) And, revising – can be like giving a cat a bath.
Where do you hope do be in a year?
In a year I hope to have at least one book under contract and two others for submitting.
How do you stay on track and accomplish your goals? I know it can seem daunting to summit the mountain of publication for writers just starting to climb.
Daunting to say the least! When I am working on something new (like The Mountain of the Seven Stars), I set up a calendar and work toward the goal of 1667 words a day (for a first draft.) Those are NaNo numbers – you’ll have over 50K in 30 days if you write that much. I track my writing daily & do my best to exceed word count. This past NaNo (2008), I reached 50K in 30 days, but continued writing for another five days in order to finish the story (Remembrance – a contemporary YA novel about witches.) That story is waiting in the wings for revision.
My biggest challenge is working a regular job in Human Resources from 9-5 and then coming home to take care of my dogs, cats & house. Often I will get up at 4:30 a.m. and write before I get ready for work. I guess if a person has stories inside that need to come out – they will find time to write, no matter what!
And here’s a teaser from Julia’s The Mountain of the Seven Stars:
“But I don’t want to get married, Father.” Princess Sierra’s eyes flashed as she set down the silver hairbrush. “That’s so old-fashioned, to be married by the time you’re sixteen. Besides, I have to go on a quest. It says so, right here.” She picked up a book from the table and held it out in front of the King. “Page one hundred five says that the heir to the monarchy must complete his quest prior to marriage or his ascension to the throne.” She dropped the book onto the table. “You went on a quest, didn’t you?”
The King sighed. “Of course. I have told you the story many times. But, girl heirs are not expected to–”
“Didn’t Mother have a quest? She would’ve been queen of Shifting Sands if you hadn’t married her. Right?”
“Yes, my dear, but those are the rules of her country.” He shook his head.
“If something happened to Prince Goric, I’m the heir to that throne, too, aren’t I?”
“Enough, daughter!” The King strode to the window, leaning his hands on the sill.
Sierra watched his shoulders rise and fall. She knew she was right and her father was struggling to control his temper; but she was determined not to give up her plan to go on a quest.
Without turning around, the King said, “Ocean Walls has imposed a heavy tariff on exporting grain. We must use their ports, since Plains is land-locked and our largest buyers are across the sea.”
“What does that have to do with my quest?” Sierra joined her father. Knowing that sweetness usually worked better than arguing with him, she tucked her arm through his and snuggled close. “We have gold enough to pay any tariffs that stuffy old King Vongus charges.”
The King was silent.
“We do have enough gold, don’t we?” Sierra had never given money a thought. If she wanted something, it was hers. She was generous with gifts to her servants and showered presents on her lady-in-waiting, Felicity Arbogast, who was like a sister to her. She never imagined there could be a problem with money.
“When that strange blight hit the wheat last summer,” the King said, “our shipments were greatly reduced. Smaller exports combined with higher tariffs means less gold coming in. If King Vongus had a reason to look more kindly on Plains…”
“What?” The Princess pulled away from her father. “You aren’t thinking…” She shook her head so vehemently that her hair swirled around like a tornado. “Not Ingloff. Never!” When she saw the King’s expression, she knew that was exactly what he had in mind.
For this week’s interview, the third in the Writers on the Rise series, please welcome Leah Clifford and check out her blog here. I’m having great fun talking with these authors, and I hope you are, too. Comment away!
Hello, Leah! Can you tell us a little about yourself?
I’m twenty-seven years old. I love music, especially remixes that sound nothing like the original. I’ve worked as an extreme cave guide (helmet, headlamp, mud), flight attendant, waitress, pizza delivery girl and for a few months I sold my belongings on Ebay to pay my bills. All of my worldly possessions used to fit in the back of a 2004 Chevy Impala, but now I have too many books.
What are you currently writing?
In first place right now is the sequel to Reapers, which is the YA urban fantasy that I’m about start sending queries for. There are a few other shinies that keep popping up though, so we’ll see what happens!
What else have you written?
Growing up, I was a short story kind of girl. There were a half dozen or so attempts at novels (and one very odd screenplay for some reason) but I never finished any of them. I was twenty-five when I wrote my first novel, which was a pretty safe haunting-type story, and horribly overwritten. The more I queried it, the more I knew I could do better. It now rests in peace, safely trunked.
Have your experiences on the job inspired your writing? I’m particularly curious about extreme cave guide.
Haha! The caving job was the best. I was living in Colorado and I had to walk alone through a canyon and up a mountain to get to work. I carried Bear Spray, which is like supercharged pepper spray and comes with a disclaimer in bold that sometimes not only does it NOT work, but pisses off the bears. Good times. So, I was always on the lookout. Of course, your mind tends to play tricks on you, and one day I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was following me (for all I know something was…) but instead of thinking about mountain lions or chipmunks, I latched onto the idea that what was back there, just behind the rocks, was Death. I wondered what would happen if it caught up. I also wondered what would happen if what came around the corner was only a person (in my head I was picturing a smiling teenager), and if that would be more or less frightening. This was about three years before Reapers was written, but it was one of many seeds.
Where are you at on your path to publication?
I’ve got my toes curled around the edge of the Query Pool, and will be jumping in sometime in the next few weeks!
I remember being daunted before I first jumped into the Query Pool. How are you writing your query letter and researching agents?
I’m actually really excited to query this time around. That said, it usually takes me about five minutes of trying before I can press send on queries.
I’m REALLY bad at query letters. The first draft is usually something like… There’s this character, see, and they have issues and stuff, but then they have more issues and CLIFFHANGER OF AWESOME! (You know, to leave the agent wanting more) Then I elaborate. Then I cut. Then I rewrite it. Again. And again. Then it gets posted for other writers to critique, which is a really important phase. This isn’t your mom telling you it’s great. Or your friends (unless they’re like mine and will tell you (in graphic detail) how bad it sucks, rather than send you out with crap). These should be people that haven’t read your story so they won’t be able to fill in gaps themselves. It will help you see what sections need more or less detail so that your story is coming across in the best way possible. There are quite a few forums out there for query review. I use Querytracker.net because not only do they have a really supportive forum, but the main site is also the best tool for researching agents. Check it out. Seriously.
What advice do you have for writers?
I’m gonna skip the read and write, because that seems to be the ‘go to’ answer and say “Try harder.” I really believe that writing is something you have to work at to get better. Look at each chapter or even sentence and ask yourself if you can improve it, and then do! Also, lots of coffee.
I think it can be easy to forget the importance of trying harder and growing as a writer, particularly if you are comfortable with one genre, point of view, or voice. How have you grown as a writer over the years?
It’s easy to slip into a rut and develop patterns, but this is almost always harmful. Let me put it this way: If you’re comfortable, you’re not pushing yourself. If you’re not pushing yourself, you’re not trying harder and so you aren’t going to get any better. Writing in third person has always been really difficult for me, but that’s the POV that Reapers needed to be told in. Trying to write in third person was really tough. Everything felt flat at first, and I almost stopped writing a few times. But it challenged me and I think (hope!) it worked and that I’ve grown.
What are your inspirations?
My dad has been my biggest inspiration so far. I’d been saying for years that I wanted to be a writer, and one day while we were in the car he asked me what I planned to do for a career. When I said I was going to try writing (again) he grumbled something about how I’d been saying that forever and if I really wanted it I would have done it already. At first I was really angry, but then I realized he was right. So I sat my butt in the chair and proved him wrong. My dad is REALLY good at reverse psychology.
When I started querying my first novel, I found a site called Query Tracker that has a great forum, and another of my huge inspirations has been watching so many of my friends snag agents and even publishing deals over the past year.
What has been the best part of writing?
The little bits of magic! The moments of realization where tiny details that didn’t seem important they were first written ended up being crucial later on. I’ve loved getting to know new characters and finding out what happens next (I’m a seat of the pantser so I never know how it’s going to end). One of the best side effects of writing that I wasn’t expecting has been all of the friends I’ve met through Livejournal, Query Tracker, and Facebook.
I used to be more of a seat of the pantser writer, but now I outline more and more. What advice do you have for writers wondering whether to plot first or wing it?
I think everyone is different in terms of their method. There are some writers who have to know their ending before they put down the first sentence. I know of another who has to have a title. Some have pages and pages of outline and just fill in the details. One of the most important things to learn is that your way, whatever that way might be, is right. As long as it works, you’re doing it right. Do what you need to do to get the words on the page.
Personally, I can’t outline, because most of my drive is in finding out the rest of the story. My secret fear is that an agent will ask me for a synopsis of the next two books, because I have absolutely NO clue how the second story is going to end, let alone the third.
And what has been the worst part of writing?
Learning to kill my darlings! LOL! I have a file of lines and sections I’ve had to cut because they didn’t move the story along in the right way or just didn’t work. Most of them are awful, but some of them I wish I could have kept.
I also keep all my murdered darlings a file that often grows several times longer than the manuscript itself, embarrassingly enough. How do you decide which of your darlings to kill or keep?
Cutting your favorite bits is always the worst, isn’t it? Unfortunately, it’s simple to decide. If it doesn’t work or doesn’t move the plot forward, it’s gotta go. Great in theory right? Not so easy in the real world.
Where do you hope do be in a year?
Signed with a major deal, of course! (Hey! It could happen!) But honestly, I’d be happy to be where I am now…at the computer with my story file open and the itch to write.
And here’s a teaser from Leah’s Reapers:
Eden peered through the little window beside the security door, keeping herself just out of view as she watched them. Outside, on the stairs of the apartment building, five reapers were already waiting for her.
They wore their glamours well. Every trace of death was polished over with flesh, pierced and tattooed to fit in with the mortals. To the morning rush of pedestrians, they would have been chalked up as street kids. Eden knew better. It would only take a swipe of her fingertips on their skin to drop their façade and show the truth. After all, she was one of them.
Five today. It had never been so many.
“Time to greet the fan club,” Eden scoffed as she twisted the knob.
The security door clicked shut behind her. She tucked the key into the pocket of her black pea coat and turned to face them. As usual, they were all boys. Their whispers, snippets of “has to be the one” and “right where she was supposed to be”, intensified as they caught sight of her.
“Where who said I’d be?” she demanded. “Who sent you?”
“It’s true isn’t it?” The one who spoke up couldn’t have been more than twelve. “That you breathe death?” Eden rolled her eyes as he stared at her, taking her in like some kind of urban legend come to life. She didn’t need Touch to tell they were new, all of them.
Bonus: Check out Leah’s book trailer here!
